Chilean miner Pablo Rojas gives his thumb up after being brought to the surface from the San Jose mine. Photograph: Rodrigo Arangua/AFP/Getty Images

A Chilean congressional commission has found two mine owners responsible for the accident that trapped 33 men half a mile underground for 69 days last year. The commission unanimously found Alejandro Bohn and Marcelo Kemeny responsible for the collapse that trapped the men deep inside the San José mine under the Atacama desert in northern Chile. The report is expected to help lawyers for the miners pursue lawsuits against the owners. Bohn and Kemeny denied being negligent or otherwise responsible for the collapse, in which a 700,000-tonne monolith blocked the mine shaft. Both executives also face charges in an earlier accident in which a falling slab of rock sliced off a miner's leg.

The remarkable rescue effort, involving more than 300 people who supported the drilling and kept the miners safe and well-fed below, was paid for by the Chilean government, which has estimated that the company must repay $20 million. The mining company is under bankruptcy protection and its assets have been sold off to help resolve debts and pay severance to the miners.